Archive for May, 2015

Achieving balance is something we discuss often at New Leaf Natural Therapies. So many of the issues our client’s struggle with, be it physical, emotional and mental are related to their lives, bodies and feelings, being destabilized. The word “disease” is a literal translation to the state of being that the body is in “dis – ease”, and ailments and illnesses can originate from the mind, body, spirit being out of balance. All of the services we provide are working towards helping our clients find health, harmony and balance in their lives.

I found the following article by Jasmine Tanjeloff a psychotherapist that gives some simple steps to start to bring grounding and balance into your life.

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” ~Thomas Merton

To start, what does it mean to be balanced?

To me, it means that you have a handle on all the various elements in your life and don’t feel that your heart or mind is being pulled too hard in any direction. More often than not, you feel calm, grounded, clear-headed, and motivated.

How do you find your balance?

The elements in life that require the most balancing can be divided into two categories: internal and external. Oftentimes, people focus on one more than the other.

For example, you may find that you focus on external things, like work, relationships, and activities, and that you pay very little attention to what is going on inside your heart and mind.

On the other hand, you may find that you spend so much time being self reflective that you sometimes miss out on the experience of living.

Fun: Allocating time for things you enjoy doing vs. making sure you don’t overdo it

As you can see, both ends of each spectrum are actually positive; but if either side is taken to an extreme, something that is intended to be positive can end up being detrimental.

If you feel pulled in any one direction and uneasy about it, these steps may help you get your life aligned:

1. Acknowledge. – Take some time to really look at your life, your state of mind, and how you’re feeling. Be honest with yourself and notice the areas of your life that you’re neglecting.

2. Examine. – Notice if you’re leaning more toward an internal or external focus, or if there are areas within each category that you would like to be more balanced.

3. Set Goals. – Look at the outline to help you decide which ways you want to balance your life. Make a list.

4. Plan Tasks. – Make a list of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you will need to do to achieve each of these goals. What have you tried in the past? Did it work? If not, what can you do differently?

5. Reflect. – What is the most important thing you’ve accomplished in the past? How did you stay focused toward this goal? How did you handle your fears, doubts, anxieties, worries, and negative self-talk? How does it feel to know that you accomplished the goal in spite of these parts of yourself?

6. Prepare. – What is your inner “stuff” that will try to keep you from sticking to your plan (fears, worries, doubts, negative self-talk)? Can you specify the things you will say to yourself to push you off track? (For example: “Just one more bite, I’ll start eating better tomorrow”) Make a list.

7. Empower. – What do you need to remember in those times? What are things you can say to that self-sabotaging part of yourself? Be kind to yourself. Balance won’t feel good if you’re cruel to yourself in creating it!

8. Connect. – Is there a person or a tactic you can use to keep yourself supported, motivated, and focused in those hard times? I highly recommend connecting and sharing your inner process with someone. Find someone who can help you challenge your inner demons, and celebrate your little accomplishments.

9. Plan. – Just like accomplishing any goal in life, it takes time and effort to overcome your habitual patterns and create new ones. If you stay on track with this detailed and intentional process for three whole months, then there is a good chance you will create new habits to enjoy a more balanced life going forward!

Theses nine steps are a great starting point but the support of knowledgeable practitioners is a vital element in finding the answers and moving forward. Sessions of Kinesiology, Reiki, Reflexology, Chi Nei Tsang/Remedial Massage and Naturopathy can help with self sabotage and survival patterns, reducing stress, nutritional support as well as creating a plan to move forward.

At New Leaf we can offer Kinesiology (Georgia, Madonna), Reiki (Gabby), Reflexology (Carole) as well as Remedial/CNT Massage (Reenee-Jee, Carole) and Naturopathy (Georgia, Madonna) to help you to develop and maintain balance and harmony for your health and wellbeing.

Give Annette a call on 3348 6098 to find out about the specials on offer to get you started or help continue your journey.

Hormones are the body’s messengers. They’re stimulated by feedback loops to either produce or stimulate another organ to do something or counteract something. Hormones are imperative to a functioning body. Which means that they also need to be in certain ratio’s or quantities to their counterparts. Such systems often involves the liver to break them down and detoxify them out at an efficient rate. Therefore when we talk hormone balance liver function is a big factor to include. If the liver is working hard with detoxifying lifestyle or environmental toxins then it will be harder for it to get through its daily to do list, thus impacting upon hormone levels. Some of the big hormone shifts we can help the body out with by supporting the liver are:

For females the big one is progesterone and oestrogen balance. Basically if there isn’t enough progesterone in ratio with oestrogen we run into a few problems which may include PMS symptoms, tender breasts, fluid retention, shortened cycle lengths, pain and cramping, anxiety and sleeplessness.

Oestrogen excess often has very similar symptoms but instead of not enough progesterone there is too much oestrogen thus the progesterone message can’t get through to where it needs to go. Much like a weak analogue radio station when there’s a bigger stronger signal from other radio stations on frequencies next to it.

Stress is a big interference! When we are stressed, whether it be physically tired and verging on exhaustion or under mental/emotional, the body responds by stimulating the adrenals to release more cortisol and/or adrenaline. This is a natural response the problem being that in today’s lifestyle we are so used running on high cortisol and adrenaline (and feeling as though that is the normal) that it can deplete the adrenals. When the adrenals are stimulated they need cholesterol to make cortisol but so does progesterone. When really stressed the cholesterol is taken away from the progesterone to make more cortisol, thus effecting the progesterone levels and altering the menstrual cycle.

Androgens are the hormones which control the male development and function of male characteristics however some levels are present in female too. Testosterone is an androgen. Androgens can also be out of ratio and thus displaying symptoms such as male hair pattern growth in females and low mood and energy in males. Liver toxicity also has a role to play in androgen balance. That is if the liver is hard at work detoxying chemicals such as pesticides or bisphenol A out of the system the androgens are pushed down on the to do list and may accumulate in the system thus causing male pattern hair growth in females.

In males with low androgens have such symptoms of fatigue, poor concentration, low or agitated moods, low libido, loss of muscle strength and bulk. Again environmental chemical exposure and how well the liver can keep up with it has a large role to play here. Soft plastics leach chemicals which can interfere with the messages the hormones are attempting to convey (i.e. receptor sites) and therefore it is up to the liver to detox these chemicals out of the system as quickly as possible.

These are just a few examples of the interplay between systems giving just a glimpse of how intricately the body can work. Although there are many more hormone excess and deficiency scenarios these are the most common in today’s fast paced world. The take home message here: It’s well worth looking after your liver, adrenals and the messengers (hormones) for synergism between all systems… to ultimately wake up in the mornings with a feeling of wellbeing that lasts all day, no matter what the day brings.

During a Reiki session we work with the energy of the Chakras to help to bring balance, harmony and relaxation into the body, mind and spirit

The Sanskrit word Chakra literally translates to wheel or disk. In yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda, this term refers to wheels of energy throughout the body. There are seven main chakras, which align the spine, starting from the base of the spine through to the crown of the head. To visualize a chakra in the body, imagine a swirling wheel of energy where matter and consciousness meet. This invisible energy, called Prana, is vital life force, which keeps us vibrant, healthy, and alive.

Seven Major Chakras

Chakras are numbered from the bottom up. The first three chakras, starting at the base of the spine are chakras of matter. They are more physical in nature.

1st Chakra: The Muladhara/Coccygeal/Root – colour Red – this is the chakra of stability, security, and our basic needs. It encompasses the first three vertebrae, the bladder, and the colon. When this chakra is open, we feel safe and fearless.

2nd Chakra: The Svadhisthana/Sacral – colour Orange – this is the chakra of our creativity and sexual center. It is located above the pubic bone, below the navel, and is responsible for our creative expression.

3rd Chakra: The Manipura/Solar Plexus – colour Yellow – this chakra means lustrous gem and it’s the area from the navel to the breastbone. The third chakra is our source of personal power.

4th Chakra: The Connection between Matter and Spirit – colour Green

Located at the heart center, the fourth chakra, Anahata/Heart is at the middle of the seven and unites the lower chakras of matter and the upper chakras of spirit. The fourth is also spiritual but serves as a bridge between our body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The heart chakra is our source of love and connection.

When we work through our physical chakras, we can open the spiritual chakras more fully.

The Chakras of Spirit

5th Chakra: The Vishuddha/Throat – colour Blue – this is the chakra located in the area of the throat. This is our source of verbal expression and the ability to speak our highest truth. The fifth chakra includes the neck, thyroid, and parathyroid glands, jaw, mouth, and tongue.

6th Chakra: The Ajna/Third Eye – colour Indigo – this is the chakra located in between the eyebrows. It is also referred to as the “third eye” chakra. Ajna is our center of intuition. We all have a sense of intuition but we may not listen to it or heed its warnings. Focus on opening the sixth chakra will help you hone this ability.

7th Chakra: The Sahaswara/Head/Crown – colour Violet – this is the chakra located at the crown of the head. This is the chakra of enlightenment and spiritual connection to our higher selves, others, and ultimately, to the divine. It is located at the crown of the head.

Chakras and the body

These swirling wheels of energy correspond to massive nerve centres in the body. Each of the seven main chakras contains bundles of nerves and major organs as well as our psychological, emotional, and spiritual states of being. They can be treated from the back or the front and are often felt as balls of energy. Chakras perform their duties in perfect synchronicity with our endocrine systems. The endocrine systems control the functions of the body at a cellular level through seven major glands in the body, each of which is associated with a particular chakra. The glands of the endocrine system are responsible for the correct amount of chemical nutrients, or hormones, fed to each of our organs and if one of them has an imbalance it can be felt.

Since everything is moving, it’s essential that our seven main chakras stay open, aligned, and fluid. Our bodies are in constant flux between balance and imbalance and when there is a blockage, energy cannot flow. Keeping a chakra open can be a challenge, but not so difficult when you have awareness. Since mind, body, soul, and spirit are intimately connected, the emotional stresses and traumas of our everyday lives can manifest into physical ailments. For example someone overwhelmed with grief can also be struggling with bronchitis or breathing issues. The heart chakra is affected in this case and when awareness of the connection between the loss and the bronchitis is developed, healing will occur much faster when the grieving process is honoured as well as the physical ailment.

The openness and flow of energy through our chakras determines our state of health and balance. Knowledge of our more subtle energy systems empowers us to maintain balance and harmony in the physical, mental and spiritual level. Through living consciously with awareness of how we acquire and spend our energy we become capable of balancing our life force with our mental, physical and spiritual selves.